Snow Crash

WHAT THE FUCK DID I JUST READ???

This book... I was hoping to wirte something in the same vein, but this book... brought me down... I could never come up with so many freaking ideas. What Do You Mean, It Wasn't Made on Drugs??

Sumerian mythology + Julian Jaynes + talking penises had to be drug-fueled, huh?

Are you trying to confuse me even more?

Also, I'm not sure if this book is taking itself seriously. I mean, KATANAS? SERIOUSLY? The main character is called Hero Protagonist? Delivering Pizza is Serious Business?

AM I READING A SHOUNEN MANGA???

Are you trying to confuse me even more?

Nope.

Also, I'm not sure if this book is taking itself seriously.

Nope.

So... the book actually features talking penises...

I can't stop reading it...

edited 5th Mar '11 4:06:02 PM by Ardiente

I take it this is your first Neal Stephenson novel?

And you're not done with it yet? You're in for a ride, then.

You're ahead of the curve, though; it took me until the second read through to realize how Hiro's full name was pronounced.

edited 5th Mar '11 4:18:01 PM by Taelor

... It's in an audiobook with a narrator who sounds like Spike Spiegel...

And, yeah, I didn't know it was spelled Hiro...

Yeah, Hiro is a fairly common Japanese Nipponese name.

And one of the most Incredibly Lame Bilingual Puns Ever.

Well, his surname was something he changed to himself.

A drug-dealing radioactive Inuit that rides a motorcycle with a nuke strapped to it, killed an entire Russian nuclear sub with a glass knife, and peddles cybercrack on the internet. Who duels to the death with an African-Asian internet samurai warrior prince who delivers pizza for the Mafia as a day job.

This book has to be the poster child for the Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot trope or something.

... Tashikani...

edited 6th Mar '11 8:19:50 AM by Ardiente

Just think, when you finish this one, you've still got The Diamond Age, Cryptonomicon, The Baroque Cycle, and Anathem. I had to read them as they came out. If I read them all at once, I think my head would asplode.

I just realized who should do a film adaptation for this book:

Quentin Tarantino.

That was the conclusion that I came to as well.

I wish he could invent the ability to pull off a decent ending, though, though I must confess I gave up on him somewhere during the Baroque Cycle, and what I've heard of Anathem does not encourage me.

And yes, Snow Crash could be a shounen manga. This is probably deliberate.

It was originally intended to be a graphic novel. Fitting.

Also, I think you can safely skip Anathem IMHO.

I remember Norn and I having a discussion about that once; we agreed about Stephenson's increasing flaw, which is pandering to his nerd audience, Anathem being the worst case of such so far.

My personal gripe with it was that it lacked the zany funniness of his earlier work. That's a signature element, man.

Also, the book is apparently an extended Take That! at a certain school of mathematical thought. :/

Regarding Anathem: the Platonism just kinda left a bad taste in my mouth.

So it's anti-formalism or what?

The copy I first read had an afterword saying that it was originally going to be a graphic novel. When I read that I was pretty much, well. Haven't seen much to back that up since, however, I may have dreamed it.

edited 13th Mar '11 2:10:47 PM by Tzetze

Naw, it said that in my copy too.

It makes sense if you imagine some of the sequences (like Hiro's and Raven's motive rant bike duel at the end) in the form of a graphic novel storyboard.

Am I the only one who imagined Y.T. as looking a lot like Lain?

I tended to imagine her as Molly Millions Junior.